The invention relates to an apparatus for conveying slaughtered animals, in particular birds or parts of birds, which apparatus comprises a plurality of carriers for the animals. Each carrier is connected via adjustable coupling means with a conveyor, and each carrier travels a path passing at least one inspection or processing station. During operation of the conveyor, each carrier at a predetermined position in the conveyor""s path is rotatable about a substantially vertical axis by means of adjusting the coupling means via at least one operating unit positioned along the path. Along the conveyor""s path, there is at least one guide member provided which is capable, after the carrier is rotated to a predetermined position, of moving the animal suspended from the carrier such that it is diverted around the processing station.
Such an apparatus is disclosed in the international patent application WO 93/13671 (PCT/NL93/00016). A problem with the known apparatus is that an animal which after inspection is found to be unsuitable for processing the in the processing station, is brought outside the path of the conveyor and the processing station through contact with the guide member. For hygienic reasons, this direct contact between the guide member and the respective animal is undesirable.
Another problem is that in order to allow the animal to circumvent the processing station, the carrier in the prior art is eccentric, which limits the speed at which the carrier with the suspended animal can be rotated to the predetermined position for guiding the animal around the processing station. This speed limit is unfavorable and has a limiting effect regarding the conveyance speed of the slaughtered animals in the apparatus, resulting in an undesirable limitation to the performance.
It is a particular object of the invention to embody the apparatus such as to solve the problems noted above. An additional objective is to provide further advantages which will be explained hereinbelow or may be obvious from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.
The apparatus according to the invention is characterized in that each carrier possesses at least one arm extending substantially sideways, and in that the guide member is equipped to cooperate with the arm when, as a result of the carrier""s rotation to the predetermined position, the arm is placed at right angles to the conveyor""s path of travel. This is a very simple manner for providing a hygienic means to avoid that an animal is being processed in the processing station.
A further advantage of the invention is that the carrier for each animal may be carried out substantially rotation-symmetrically so that, if desired, the carrier can very quickly be rotated to the predetermined position so that the cooperation between the arm, which is attached to the carrier, and the guide member, will cause the animal suspended from the carrier to be diverted around the processing station.
When such diversion is desired, the apparatus according to the invention allows a control organ positioned along the path to adjust the coupling means of the carrier of the animal that is to be excluded such that the sideways extending arm connected to this carrier positions at right angles to the conveyor""s path. Conveniently, each carrier is provided with two arms extending substantially sideways and in each other""s extended direction. In this way, the number of adjustments to the coupling means required to be carried out can be limited.
A simple embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention is characterized in that the arm guiding member is embodied as a bar which begins and ends near the path traveled by each carrier, and which bar between its two ends deflects away from this path of travel. In this manner, the path of the arm-guiding member causes the arm, and the carrier coupled thereto, to be diverted outside the path of the conveyor to circumvent the processing station in the desired manner. Desirably, the arm or arms are curved in order to allow the arm or arms to readily follow the path of the arm-guiding member.
It is known that the carriers may be provided with hook-like receiving means for the legs of the slaughtered animals. In this embodiment, it is desirable in a further aspect of the invention that the receiving means of carriers suspended substantially vertically only have an opening which is directed upward. This prevents the animal falling out of the carrier when the carrier is diverted around the respective processing station.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the apparatus is provided with a guard member to prevent the coupling means from twisting, which guard member is in operation during the advancement of the arm-guiding member. The advantage with this is that if, due to the contact between arm and arm guiding member, a twisting torque is exerted on the carrier, this will meet with resistance so that the animal will be conveyed past the processing station as desired.
An embodiment is known in which the coupling means are substantially rectangular with flat side edges. The guard member may then be simply embodied as a guide rail which is mounted closely to the path of a side edge of the coupling means in the vicinity of the arm-guiding member. Desirably, the guide rail extends substantially at least along the starting section of the arm-guiding member.